The Jordanian Islamic action front party warned of possible adverse impacts of the Two Seas canal (conduit) project on Jordan's interests and called for a parliamentary reassessment of the notorious deal signed lately between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. This came in a position statement released by the front on Saturday and circulated to members of the Jordanian parliament and the senate.

The front called on the parliament and the senate to scrutinize and study the Two Seas deal signed with their country in order to avert any risks that might result from the project and harm Jordan's interests, especially since Israel had already disrespected previous agreements with Jordan.

The front emphasized that due to the sensitivity of the project and pursuant to the provisions of the constitution, the Two Seas agreement must be referred to the Jordanian parliament to exercise its regulatory authority and determine the higher interests of the people by revoking, approving or recommending amendments to the deal.

PLO Executive Committee member, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, praised the recent announcement by Dutch water company, Vitens, to end its cooperation with Israel's national water company, Mekorot, calling it a "necessary and moral decision", PLO's Negotiations Affairs Department said in a press release Monday.

Mekorot is responsible for a number of violations of international law within the occupied State of Palestine. This includes the pillage of shared water resources and the denial of Palestinian access to their own water resources, in order to sustain Israel's illegal settlements.

"This is a significant step. In a statement, Vitens stressed that it attaches great importance to integrity and abides by national and international law and regulations. The company should be praised for turning its principled position into positive action. I also commend the Dutch government for its clear official policy on discouraging economic links with the illegal Israeli settlement enterprise, which is in line with domestic, European and international law."

"It has been suggested by some that Mekorot is named in the recent deal signed by Israel, Jordan and the occupied State of Palestine. I have been assured that this is not the case," Ashrawi stated. "This is a company which is complicit in denying a whole population some of its most fundamental human rights."

Ashrawi also welcomed the UK Department of Trade and Industry's recent publication of guidelines warning businesses about the risks of economic links with settlements. "We hope that the British government will now follow in a similar vein to the Dutch government, by advising British companies to end cooperation with settlements."

Ashrawi concluded, "Such steps demonstrate integrity and respect for international law. They distinguish Israel from its illegal activities over the Green Line and therefore help to realize the two-state solution, which the international community endorses, and in which it has invested heavily. These measures constitute a natural translation of both law and policy. We call on other States, municipalities and private companies to follow such examples."

An overflowing stream in the West Bank village of NassariyehThe Netherland’s largest drinking water supplier Vitens has decided to cut ties with Israeli water company Mekorot.

Vitens said in a statement issued on Wednesday that it would no longer work with the Israeli water company on future projects “because they cannot be taken out of the political context.”

The decision by the Dutch water supplier came after a visit by Dutch Trade Minister Lilianne Ploumen to the Mekorot offices was canceled.

In addition, the Israeli water company has been accused by Dutch media of denying water access to Palestinians.

According to the World Bank, a third of Palestinian territories are cut off from water system. In April, the Israeli regime completely cut off water to ten villages in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian NGO, Land Research Centre, also said in a report that Israeli settlers from the settlements of Yiztar and Baracha have been using water springs in Burin in order to raise fish.

Much of the international community regards the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are thus subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied land.

Vitens has stressed that moral standards and abiding by international rules are highly significant for it and as a result it cannot continue its projects with the Israeli company.

Hamas movement has expressed its total rejection to the agreement linking Red Sea with Dead Sea, considering it a normalization and legalization to the Israeli occupation. Hamas movement warned of the agreement's serious impacts on the Palestinian cause in light of the Israeli open war on Palestinian people and holy sites. In a controversial step, Israel, Jordan and PA signed in Washington an agreement linking between the Red Sea and Dead Sea. Israeli officials have described the agreement as a historic development that could achieve Herzl's dream, while environmental groups warned of its serious impacts. The movement stressed that the PA is not entitled to give up or compromise on any inch of the Palestinian land or water resources, calling on Palestinian factions to refuse such agreements that strengthen the Israeli occupation. The Islamic movement called on the Palestinian Authority not to take unilateral decisions in violation of the national consensus under the illusion of peace negotiations.

Palestinian-Israelis swim in the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel on Sept. 2, 2011Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians signed a historic water-sharing initiative at the World Bank in Washington Monday that could protect water resources in the region amid rising demand.

The project envisions a new desalination plant at Aqaba as the lynchpin of a sharing deal involving end-users in all three parties to the deal.

"It gives a glimmer of hope that we can overcome more obstacles in the future," said Silvan Shalom, Israel's Minister of Energy and Water Resources at the signing.

"We showed that we can work together despite the political problems," said the Palestinian water minister, Shaddad Attili.

The deal capped 11 years of negotiations and came as the United States pushes a new effort to forge a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians.

The pact, signed at the World Bank's headquarters in Washington, will see Jordan providing 50 million cubic liters of desalinated water to Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat.

In exchange, the Israel will provide northern Jordan with the same amount of water from the Sea of Galilee.

It will also see Israel raising its annual sales of water to the Palestinian Authority by 20-30 million cubic meters a year, up from the current level of 52 million cubic meters.

The World Bank said the project is "limited in scale and designed to accomplish two objectives: to provide new water to a critically water short region; and the opportunity, under scientific supervision, to better understand the consequences of mixing Red Sea and Dead Sea waters."

According to Shalom, the project will go to international tender, to build the desalination plant in Aqaba and lay the first of the four pipes for transporting the water.

An environmental group, Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), said the project as outlined has significant problems, including the handling of the brine from the desalination plant. The plan envisions experimenting with mixing the brine with water in the Dead Sea.

Gidon Bromberg, Israeli director of the group, noted that World Bank studies had found that introducing Red Sea brine could have "detrimental impacts" on the Dead Sea's fragile ecosystem.

"It will also increase the cost of desalinating water in Aqaba by 30 percent, and it will maintain the protest of the environmental groups," he said.

The Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) announced intention to confiscate 1200 dunums of Palestinian land in the town of Deir Estia in Salfit, in the north of the West Bank, to expand settlements established in the area of Wadi Qana. Local sources said that the lands threatened with confiscation belong to citizens from the village of Deir Estia, and added that they will appeal the decision to the Israeli Supreme Court.

They pointed out that the confiscation decision was based on a plan to expand the settlement of Yakir, set up on Deir Estia lands.

The sources said that the lands contain olive groves and water springs, and added that the settlers have been targeting the region for the past decades.

Meanwhile, local sources in the city of Tulkarem in the north of the West Bank said that Israeli occupation forces served demolition notices to Palestinian citizens, claiming their houses were built in Area C, where construction is prohibited.

Imad Abu Hamda, head of Zeita village council north-west of the city of Tulkarem, said IOF soldiers raided the village on Saturday morning and handed two citizens military decisions to halt construction work in their houses.

Abu Hamda added in a press statement that a month ago the IOA had notified two other citizens that their homes would be razed, claiming they are built in area C.

Charlie Andreasson I was just going to make dinner when I realized the filtered water in my tank was almost done. Perhaps it would be enough if I used the last of my bottled water. But then I would have nothing to drink with my meal. And there would be no coffee, not after the food and not for breakfast. Glances at the tap, I considered diluting the filtered water with tapwater, in order to save time and to avoid having to walk two blocks to fill the tank. It was dark outside, and the shop with water might be closed. Tapwater cannot be used for cooking, or should not be used for cooking. I avoid doing it anyway. I wash dishes in it, but do not use it to cook my rice. It’s salt. Saltwater penetrates the underground aquifier, which it is larger than the natural supply of fresh water can fill. But the seawater is not its only contaminant. According to the United Nation, chemicals and sewage also pollute it, which is not surprising when 90,000 cubic meters of untreated sewage gush out every day. Sewage, from the toilets, back in the taps. With water treatment plants, that works. But in Gaza, the problem is that there is not enough diesel to run the generators around the clock. And for those Israel has bombed, well, it also stops the import of replacement parts. Meanwhile seawater, chemicals and sewage increase in the water supply. By 2016, UN expects the water to become completely unusable. Only three years are left until then. And at 2020, no one they say, no one will be able to live here. I open the fridge, hoping to find something that does not require water for cooking. I close it again. Maybe the store is open, but the cistern outside it is empty. It’s not just me who needs water. And some families have to spend as much as a third of their income on it. They must use the contaminated tapwater far more than I do. When I first came here, I used tapwater to brush my teeth. That was a mistake I will not repeat. But I rinse the toothbrush in it afterwards, shaking it carefully. I think that’s okay. A Swiss woman visiting Gaza asked if I drank the filtered water. It should be drinkable, but someone told me it is only filtered from salt. I do not want to find out how things are, do not want to know. I buy the more expensive bottled water. But I wash my clothes in water from the plumbing system, like everyone else here is forced to do. I wash my hands in it, my face. I take my showers in it, washing off my salty sweat with contaminated water, polluted not only by salt, like everyone else here must. It becomes more polluted every year. The farmers have problems with it. It’s too salty for citrus seeds to germinate, and causes harvests to decline for the products that still grow. Tanker trucks drive to those who can afford to pay. Israel says it’s concerned, has plans to pull in a pipeline and talks about desalination plants, the same plants it keeps from entering. And I think about what will happen when the disaster strikes, when no one can live here, when everyone is forced to flee: a new Nakba, caused not by the force of arms but by the siege. Where can they go? Who is prepared to receive them? And what will happen then? Will Israel then will take over the empty land, this terra nullius, pumping in water, getting the desert to bloom? I hear it as an echo.

Israeli occupation forces (IOF) demolished agricultural installations in Khirbat Al-Tawil hamlet, near Nablus, on Wednesday morning. Yousef Diriya, an activist in the hamlet, said that IOF soldiers escorted huge bulldozes that razed a water reservoir used for irrigation and a shed for storing agricultural tools.

He said that the demolition did not stop and could target other installations in the hamlet, which are constantly targeted by the IOF at the pretext of being built in area “c” that is under full Israeli civil and security control according to the Oslo accords.

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed on Tuesday Bardala village in the Jordan Valley and ordered its Palestinian natives to evacuate their homes. Local sources reported that Israeli troops raided the tents of the villagers and gave them until the first of December to leave the village.

The sources affirmed that the structures of the village had been built tens of years ago and its lands belong to the natives, adding that the villagers use some of the tents and structures they had built on their own lands for agricultural purposes.

For his part, Aref Daraghmeh, head of the Palestinian municipal council in the Jordan Valley area, appealed to the Palestinian Authority and human rights groups to stand by the Bardala villagers and curb Israel's violations against them.

In a separate incident, dozens of Jewish settlers illegally living in Palestinian-owned areas in the Jordan Valley established a settlement outpost in the same place where an Israeli officer was killed last month.

According to Maariv newspaper on Tuesday, the settlers managed to provide their outpost with electricity and started to connect it with the water and sewage networks in the area.

The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) have issued demolition notifications against eight water wells funded by a European organization in Yatta town in the southern West Bank district of al-Khalil. Ratib Al-Jabour, the coordinator of the popular committee against the wall and settlement in Yatta, said that the Israeli Civil Administration issued notifications to demolish the wells built several months ago by War on Want under the pretext of being built without permit. Al-Jabour pointed that the wells are used by the Palestinian families for agricultural irrigation, noting that these areas are threatened to be confiscated and transferred to military zone. The occupation also issued demolition order against a stable and a Palestinian house near Yatta claiming they were built without permits.

Settlers late Saturday attacked and sabotaged a Palestinian-owned car wash shop as well as stole its equipments in the village of Nabi Samuel, northwest of Jerusalem, according to the shop owner. The owner, Anas Obaid, said that settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Ramout, built illegally on the village land, destroyed and stole heavy equipments from the shop for the second time during one month.

Settlers previously destroyed the main water tank as well as cut off the main electricity cables in the shop.

Obaid said that he was handed a demolition notice for his shop under the pretext of the shop being built near a road used by settlers but he was able to cancel the demolition order at the Israeli high court.

He said that settlers take advantage of the fact that his shop is closed on Saturdays to carry out their attacks on the shop which is the considered the source of living of around five Palestinian families.

The Palestinian Authority, the European Union (EU) and the German Government marked an award of more than € 40 million to construct a wastewater treatment plant in East Nablus, EU said in a press release.

The large-scale project is funded through a € 20 million contribution by the EU, a € 21,8 million contribution by the German government as well as a € 3,4 million contribution by Municipality of Nablus and will be implemented via the German KfW Development Bank.

The project includes the cooperation of a number of Palestinian stakeholders.

The signing ceremony took place at the Prime Minister Office in Ramallah in the presence of the Dr. Rami Hamdallah, Palestinian Prime Minister, John Gatt-Rutter, EU Representative, Ms. Barbara Wolf, Head of the Representative Office of the Federal Republic of Germany Ramallah, Mohammad Abu Ramadan, State Minister for Planning Affairs, Dr. Shaddad Attili, Head of the Palestinian Water Authority, Mr. Wolfgang Reuss, KfW Director of North Africa and Middle East, and Representatives of the Mayor of Nablus Ghassan Shaka´a.

It's worth noting that currently, wastewater from East of Nablus flows untreated into the environment reaching agricultural areas and surrounding villages, therefore this project will significantly reduce health risks for the population of Nablus and contamination of the environment. It will also allow the re-use of treated wastewater in agriculture hence conserving limited groundwater resources in Palestine.

The project includes the construction of a central wastewater treatment plant to serve the eastern part of Nablus city and six surrounding villages of Azmut, Salem, Deir Al-Hatab, Kafer Qalil, Rujeeb and Beit Furik. It also includes new collection systems and extension of existing collection systems. Further, initial two years operational assistance to Nablus Municipality in operating the new plant, wastewater pre-treatment facilitates for selected industries and a pilot reuse scheme of treated wastewater in agriculture are financed within the project.

"Severe water shortages and acute water quality problems continue to negatively affect the lives and livelihoods of many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, said the EU Representative, John Gatt-Rutter

"In an effort to improve the situation, the EU has since 2011 included water and sanitation as priority sectors within its overall financial assistance to the Palestinian people. Today's ceremony marks the beginning of an ambitious project which can make a real difference to the quality of life of Palestinians in Nablus and the surrounding villages. It is also a clear example of how the EU works together with its member states to bring tangible results for the benefit of the Palestinian people", added the EU Representative.

Barbara Wolf, Head of the Representative Office of the Federal Republic of Germany Ramallah, said "Treatment facilities like the one in Nablus East improve the health and environmental situation of Palestinians. The improvement of the water and wastewater services is one of the core areas of support of the German Government in the Palestinian Territories.

"We are proud to have cooperated with the Palestinian side on the recently inaugurated Nablus West Wastewater Treatment Plant and look forward to continuing this partnership also at the eastern side of Nablus," she also said.

"This project will benefit up to 150,000 people in the region and, through an effective collection and treatment of wastewater will protect water resources and reduce health risks," said Wolfgang Reuss, KfW Director of North Africa and Middle East.

The EU is a major actor in health and environmental protection in Palestine. Since 2008 it has invested nearly €90 million in the water and sanitation and solid waste management sectors.

In the West Bank, apart from Nablus, the EU is supporting the development of wastewater treatment plants also in other areas where water supply is scarce, such as Tubas. In Gaza, the EU is investing both in large-scale solid waste management programmes and also in medium-scale projects with high impact, such as the construction of a desalination facility that will provide safe water to thousands of Gazans.

The German Government currently implements projects worth more than € 240 million for supporting the water and wastewater sector. Major projects include the Al-Bireh, Nablus West and Gaza City wastewater treatment plants as well as technical assistance and capacity building to service providers and the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA).

It's worth mentioning that KfW Development Bank is Germany's leading development bank and an integral part of KfW. It implements Germany´s Financial Cooperation (FC) with developing countries on behalf of the Federal German Government. Its goal is to combat poverty, secure peace, protect the environment and the climate and make globalisation fair. KfW is a competent and strategic advisor on current development issues and has a local Office in Al-Bireh/Ramallah.

13th September, 2013 marks the two-decade anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords. In light of this occasion, the Emergency Water and Sanitation/Hygiene (EWASH) Advocacy Task Force wrote a report detailing the situation of Palestinians' water rights in the West Bank and Gaza Strip which argues that "Palestinians have come no closer to achieving their basic water rights" since the Accords were signed. The report includes a list of quick and telling facts about water allocation in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the differences between the water situation before Oslo and today. According to the report, Palestinians living in the West Bank have "less access to water per capita than in 1993," which has resulted in the increasing necessity for Palestinians to purchase water from Israeli companies to "meet their basic water needs." In the Gaza Strip, which has been under an air, naval and land blockade since 2006 imposed by the Israeli regime, the only source of water for Palestinians is from a Coastal aquifer. The report continued, saying that less than 5% of the water from the Coastal aquifer is actually safe to drink. Israelis consume some 90% of the shared water resources in the occupied Palestinian territories, which constitutes a violation of international law, the average domestic consumption rate for Palestinians living in the West Bank is 70 liters per capita per day (l/c/d), which is 30 l/c/d lower than the "absolute minimum" World Health Organization recommendation for water consumption. The average Israeli consumption is some three times the WHO minimum, according to the EWASH report. Israeli's occupation of the West Bank has consistently included the destruction of Palestinian water and sanitation infrastructure, including wells, cisterns, rainwater catchments and sewage treatment plants, which, the report says, is a "primary cause of Palestinian displacement, particularly in Area C." Area C is under full Israeli administrative and military control and constitutes some 60% of the West Bank, according to a recent report by Israeli human rights information center B'Tselem. EWASH concluded its report with the statement, "Access to safe, reliable and adequate water supplies is a basic right, and should not be held hostage to negotiations or a final agreement. It is time to think outside of the Oslo framework. It is time to act on water."

A Palestinian boy waits near a water purification station to fill up bottles of potable water

(Israel) has blocked the international development organization Oxfam from bringing vital equipment into the Gaza Strip to help make drinking water safe, The Electronic Intifada reported. “The blockade on Gaza prevented Oxfam’s public health programme bringing in a chlorometer to help get right chlorine levels to clean water,” Ben Phillips, the organization’s Campaigns and Policy Director tweeted from Gaza today. More than 90 percent of Gaza’s water supply is unfit for human consumption due to years of Israel’s deliberate destruction of sewage and water infrastructure, its ban on imports of equipment and pollution and over-extraction of the only underground aquifer. As a consequence waterborne illnesses are widespread. Phillips said that Oxfam “made an application [to Israel] to import” the equipment, but “[A]fter 8 months without agreement we had to use less effective processes instead.” These apparently did not work. The equipment was to be shipped via Israel from a German manufacturer, Phillips added.

Dutch right-wing lawmakers have criticized the government for discouraging Royal HaskoningDHV from aiding Israeli settlements.

The lawmakers claim that the Palestinians and the peace process will be harmed if the Netherlands-based engineering company withdraws from a planned sewage treatment plant in East Jerusalem.

However, Palestinian organizations refute this and have welcomed the Dutch government’s intervention.

Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee member Hanan Ashrawistated that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has repeatedly expressed its “strong objection” to the project to Royal HaskoningDHV and the Dutch government.

The Palestinian Authority are not a partners in the project. Ashrawi describes the Dutch lawmakers’ claim that the project serves Palestinian interests as “erroneous and highly misleading.”

Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq also expressed its grave concern about Israel’s plans for a wastewater treatment plant in eastern Jerusalem in a statement I received by email yesterday.

The plant will “contribute to maintaining and supporting illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” and help to make “Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem irreversible,” writes Al-Haq director Shawan Jabarin.

The Palestinian rights organization reminds Royal HaskoningDHV of the Dutch prosecutor’s warning in another recent case that Dutch nationals and corporations “can be held criminally responsible for violations of international humanitarian law under Dutch criminal law.” Al-Haq strongly urges all participants to terminate any involvement in the wastewater treatment plant.

No permission for Palestinian sewage treatment plant The Joint Water Committee (JWC) - consisting of Israelis and Palestinians - oversees and authorizes water projects in the occupied West Bank, excluding the Israeli settlements. Israel, as the occupier, has a right to veto decisions concerning Palestinian water projects in the JWC.

In 2010, the Palestinian Water Authority asked the JWC for permission to build a sewage plant in Ubeidiyeh to treat all wastewater flowing from East Jerusalem and Bethlehem into Wadi al Nar (Kidron Valley), excluding the settlements. The treated water would be used for the development of Palestinian agriculture.

However, Israel denied JWC approval for this vital Palestinian project. Instead, it plans to upgrade its own sewage plant in the same area, which is located near Nabi Musa (between Jerusalem and Jericho.)

Boost for settlements in Jordan Valley The Civic Coalition on Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, comprised of 25 community organizations, also welcomed the Dutch government’s advice to Royal HaskoningDHV to withdraw from the unlawful project.

The coalition wrote in an email to me that the sewage project primarily serves the interests of the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Jordan Valley by “providing them with treated water that will boost their farms and income from the trade of settlement produce.” The statement adds:

The Palestinian population in occupied East Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley has never been informed and consulted by Israel about the projected sewage plant. Had the Palestinian population been consulted, people would have definitely opted for a project that serves Palestinian environmental and economic priorities and excludes the illegal settlements.

The PLO’s Ashrawi commended the Dutch government for “translating its opposition to Israel’s disastrous settlement policy into action, in line with EU policy, and for urging Royal HaskoningDHV to end its involvement in this illegal project.”

The Palestinian refugees have been suffering since 65 years, when the Palestinians were plagued with NAKBA. Residents of the Shati refugee camp in the west of Gaza, particularly people of the area of “Block 4″ complained recently of pollution of drinking water with sewage. They also suffer from salinity of the water as well as water cutting from time to time along the year. Moreover, suffering aggravated when the sewage smuggled to the drinking water making the situation intolerable for the refugees who live in that area. “Abu Ahmed said, a 44- year-old refugee living in the camp, said that residents of the camp are so upset and anger for lack of any kind of health control over the camp, noting that leakage of wastewater to the drinking water was discovered by chance not through official bodies, including UNRWA, which oversees the health of the camp, or the Municipality of Gaza, which provides the camp with water. Calling on officials , decision-makers and institutions concerned with human rights to visit the camp and take close inspection over situation and the coming living disaster that is about to hit the camp , Abu Ahmed appealed the Municipality of Gaza as well as UNRWA to cooperate and exert efforts to serve the refugees in the camp. Mr. Nashaat Abu Omaira, the chairman of popular Committee of the refugees in the camp, said that most of the water arriving Shati refugee camp is salt water in origin, where refugees cannot use it for drinking or cooking. However, the catastrophe that occurred in area of “Block 4″ is a serious pollution state that cannot be tolerated. Abu Omaira called for tightening health watching over sources of water inside the camp, noting that a large part of this task should be handled by UNRWA for it is responsible for providing refugees with service and a decent life in accordance with international resolutions. Abu Omaira added that one of the main reasons for this problem is the lack of terrestrial systems in the camp. In addition, these networks are not subject to any kind of maintenance. Furthermore, these water networks have no health planning or developments. Commenting on the problem, General Manager of water and sanitation in the Municipality of Gaza. Saad Eddin Alatbash told the Division of refugees’ affairs that the main reason for the leakage of wastewater to drinking water is caused by random use of water by residents, where people build the drinking water networks over networks of the sanitation. This random distribution of water network cased the leak of waste water to drinking water, adding that what happened in area of Bloc 4 is an exceptional case. He said that the problem of mixing of sewage with drinking water reached only some houses, and did not last more than one day, where municipal specialized crews treated it immediately. He explained that the camp suffers indiscriminate situation as well as the random behavior of citizens caused the leak among the water networks. answering a question over the inability to discover the pollution immediately , he said there are problems in some of the camps, where they face difficulties in technical and vocational dealing with the main source of pollution urgently due to lack of equipment the municipality has. However, the municipality is at permanent contact with residents. Alotbash confirmed that the municipality injects wells of drinking water with thousands of liters of “sterile chlorine”, assuring people in the camp that crews are watching health environment of the water closely and working on samples of water to avoid any future problems. Furthermore, Alotbash has warned that the Gaza Strip is going to face a water crisis with endless dimensions, particularly in the light of the fact that 80% of water wells in the Gaza Strip are salty. He added that municipality crews have recently drilled new water well in the last of Galaa Street, whose water is sweet, which is all devoted to 70% people of Shati camp. Alotbash also said that UNRWA has dug two wells for residents of the Shati refugee camp but water of these wells are too salty, adding that UNRWA has not provided any other solutions to improve the delivery of water services to refugees inside the camp. He called on r UNRWA to improve water of the wells through installing filters inside these wells for water desalination, or establish stations for the desalination of sea water. DRAH tried to communicate with UNRWA many times for getting more information over this issue; however, UNRWA officials did not cooperate with us.

The water authority of coastal municipalities in Gaza Strip has warned of an imminent environmental and health disaster in the besieged enclave. It said in a statement on Monday that the shortage in fuel necessary for operating its services was heralding that disaster. The authority appealed to all human rights groups, international relief organizations, and UN-affiliated institutions to urgently intervene and provide necessary fuel quantities to operate its vital utilities for citizens. It said that some of its utilities were already shut down while others were operating at very low efficiency. The authority warned that the fuel crisis coupled with the summer season, where demand on water is in its peak, had almost crippled its ability to provide necessary water supplies to citizens. It said that the fuel shortage would also lead to halting sewage treatment and would force the municipalities to pump untreated sewage water into the sea, which would further exacerbate pollution and negatively affect the environment and human health.

The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) served notices in Al-Fakhit hamlet to the east of Yatta town, south of Al-Khalil city, for the destruction of eight water wells. Ratib Al-Jabour, the coordinator of the popular committee against the wall and settlement in Yatta, said on Wednesday that Israeli occupation forces delivered the notifications to members of the three families in the hamlet. He said that the notifications include the demolition of the wells and barbed wire provided by UNDP for the establishment of a natural sanctuary over an area of 700 dunums owned by those three families. Jabour lashed out at the IOA for displacing citizens and destroying their property for the sake of expanding Jewish settlements. He said that Al-Fakhit is one of eight hamlets threatened with destruction in the area for the sake of retaining a reserve land for future establishment of settlements and expansion of existing ones.